MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]
STATE MENT BY
H.E. VARTAN OSKANIAN
At the Strengthening the European Neighborhood Policy
Brussels, September 3, 2007
Madame Chair,
You’ll forgive me if I look at our mission here from a distance – both a
geographic distance from Brussels, and the space provided by time, by the
decades from the beginning of this integration process until today.
The Schumann-Monet dream was for peace and prosperity — at a time when both
seemed to be out of reach. Today, both can be taken for granted by Europeans
who have begun to create a bond between human beings that transcends older
boundaries and makes out of this new institutional form something that
really is a community.
The first community was formed around coal and steel. Energy was the means
to economic integration, and economic integration would be the safeguard,
the guarantor, the catalyst for peaceful coexistence in a common search for
prosperity.
That community flourished, proving that the formula of economic and
political interdependence and sharing does work. Indeed, stability and
prosperity were achieved. So, the success of the vision was sufficiently
attractive and convincing that the community turned into a union.
Peace and prosperity remain the most critical items on the union’s and the
world’s agenda. Solving energy-related and environment-related problems
again provide the means again to address this bigger agenda.
Neither these problems nor their solutions recognize borders. At the same
time, with distances shrinking, with national and domestic actions having
international influence and impact, the Union for its own sake and for ours,
made the historic decision to welcome its neighbors to share its values,
duplicate its economic successes and meet its democratic standards.
We in the neighborhood and in Armenia embraced this invitation. We
appreciated deeply the farsightedness and the generosity of spirit. From
where we sit, the results, even in the first year of this policy have been
extremely gratifying.
1. First, there is the actual value of the
development process itself. In preparing our Action Plans, we acquired the
discipline to understand each other’s expectations and limitations as we
analyzed, assessed, summed up our accomplishments and our needs.
2. Most interesting and gratifying for me has been
joining the CFSP. Not only does this make our political dialogue with the EU
more immediate, it brings us into the loop more frequently and give us a
reference point by which to regularly review our policies in light of
international and European developments.
3. The onus remains on us to continue actively with
needed political, economic and institutional reforms. This is more than a
moral obligation. There is much that we have each done – in our case in the
spheres of judicial and administrative reform specifically. Our Action Plan
has been transformed into a clear blueprint of what needs to be done.
4. Those of us with conflicts in our areas each
have a paragraph in our Action Plans providing a general vision for a
resolution that we dearly need and want. What’s most important is that this
provides a context, integrational context, within which to view this
conflict anew.
5. The guided and accelerated approximation of our
legislation, norms and standards to those of the EU is an invaluable benefit
that opens the doors for many kinds and levels of economic integration. We
will begin to have a stake in Europe’s markets, Europe will have a stake in
ours. We are committed to this process and we’ve formalized our commitment
not just thru the Action Plan, but also by formally adopting our list of
priorities and measures to be taken by a government resolution.
This is the difference between the European Neighborhood Policy and
everything else that we have done with the EU over this last decade of
transition. Within the Neighborhood Policy, the integrational elements are
greater and therefore the relationship is now qualitatively different. In
addition, if as President Barroso and you Madame Chairman stated, with new
financial resources, stronger economic integration, education opportunities
and visa facilitation, I believe we will have smoother sailing.
Madame Chair, again thank you for this invitation. Looking around the table,
one can’t but be impressed by the the geographic breadth of this gathering.
It is testimony that the EU is an axis around which to rally our energies,
rather than an exclusionary fortress.
In Europe’s capital and in each of our capitals today, the echoes of this
meeting will raise awareness that we are all working together, deliberately,
seriously and productively.
Although the European Neighborhood Policy is individualistic in its
implementation, the spirit and the vision is collective. It takes us all in
the same direction. So the success of the program shall be measured not just
by the extent and number of individual projects, but also by the audacity of
our intent to work regionally together for a common goal and a common
future.